Texas, Ohio could decide Dem nomination

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-03-04 11:09

Dean, Reid and Pelosi, all superdelegates, are neutral in the race between Clinton and Obama.

Another superdelegate, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who dropped out of the presidential race weeks ago, said over the weekend that the candidate with "the most delegates after Tuesday, a clear lead, should be in my judgment the nominee."

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, told Providence radio station WPRO during the day, "We can't go all the way through to the convention fighting with each other while McCain and the Republicans lob in whatever free shots they want." Whitehouse, a superdelegate who supports Clinton, added, "Let's see how Tuesday plays out, and then let's start thinking about how we're going to get behind a candidate."

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2008 US Presidential Election
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Slightly more than 600 delegates will remain to be picked in primaries and caucuses in 10 states after this week's primaries, beginning with Wyoming caucuses this weekend and a Mississippi primary on March 11. Pennsylvania is the biggest state remaining, with 158 delegates in a primary on April 22.

The controversy over NAFTA flared after the AP reported the existence of a memo, written by a Canadian official, asserting that Obama's senior economic adviser had told him the Illinois senator's public criticism of the free trade agreement was "political positioning."

The adviser, Austan Goolsbee, said his comments were misinterpreted by the memo's author, Joseph DeMora, who works for the Canadian consulate in Chicago and attended the meeting.

Clinton campaigned from the pre-dawn hours until after dark as she made her way from Ohio to Texas in hopes of a political revival.

Her campaign released a new television commercial designed to undercut Obama's claim that he is ready to become commander in chief.

"Barack Obama says he has the judgment to be president. But as chairman of an oversight committee charged with the force fighting al-Qaida in Afghanistan, he was too busy running for president to hold even one hearing," it says.

The announcer adds: "Hillary Clinton will never be too busy to defend our national security, bringing our troops home from Iraq and pursuing al-Qaida in Afghanistan."

Obama aired a two-minute commercial in Ohio and Texas — the same one he used before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses that kicked off the election season — in hopes of nailing down at least one big-state victory.

"This country is ready for a leader who will bring us together. That's the only way we're going to win this election," he says in the ad. "And that's actually how we'll fix health care and make college affordable, become energy independent and end this war."

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